Dr. Marini started the practice cold so there was no negotiation that went into the beginning of the practice.

When looking for an employee, Dr. Marini looks for experience in a resume as well as things like proper spelling and grammar. He looks for a sense of fit as well as humility during the interview process.

Debt makes most of us sad. It is a big deal. Dr. Marini tries to keep his debt to a minimum but does need to deal with in when for example making large equipment purchases.

He never runs late on the monthly bills and only utilizes debt with large item purchases (i.e. optometric equipment). He pays his bills with a credit card so he can collect travel points :).

Dr. Marini never prepared a practice plan.

Within five years of opening, the office was making a profit and Dr. Marini was able to live comfortably on it. Dr. Marini started the business cold. He was making profit earlier as well but was not able to survive on the amount alone, without also holding positions as optometrist in other practices.

The practice carries insurance for : malpractice, professional liability, workmen's comp, medical for the officers, liability for theft and insurance of contents, and disability for the doctor.

Although he has gotten group insurance in the past for his staff and paid a portion of the employee's monthly insurance amount, he currently does not do this. His current staff members do not need insurance through their works as they are on medical insurance plans through their spouse.

Although Dr. Marini has not used patient satisfaction surveys, he has recently been thinking about starting to use them.

Dr. Marini's office carries lots of different insurance policies, including malpractice and professional liability. The total spent on the insurances per years comes out to about $2,000.

Dr. Marini practices slightly differently than when he first started after completing ICO. He is more careful when the patient is or works for a lawyer. He is certainly aware and is careful to avoid significant pitfalls such as failure to diagnose and chart anything or to refer out when he is not qualified to treat something.

Dr. Marini works with a lawyer on a limited basis. His lawyer helps him with the documents that are filled out annually for the ownership of an incorporation. The lawyer is also used when changing the incorporation status.

To analyze practice growth, Dr. Marini look at monthly numbers and compares them with those of the previous year. He also does comparisons month to month and year to year. These reports are provided by a CPA as part of monthly accounting.

Dr. Marini also looks at the monthly reports generated by the computer software used in office.

Although Dr. Marini thinks it would be very helpful to have a solid business background, he realizes that most private practice .

Business is not heavily taught in optometry school. The best one can do is to get as much information from reading and observing how practices work as well as by gathering information from other professionals or people with whom one networks.

Dr. Marini finds the website odwire to be helpful.

The office is leased because it is inside a medical building, down the hall from a pediatrician's office, a great location for an office specializing in pediatrics/VT. The other reason is that he didn't have and doesn't currently have the money to invest in buying the office space.

Optometry is still a growing profession and Dr. Marini thinks that Vision Therapy is a growing field.


Dr. Marini was not always self-employed. In fact he worked in a few offices before he opened his own office. There were promises made by doctors he worked for that were not kept and so he opened his own office after some time.


His current office is an S corporation.